Carbon degradation and kinetics in a vanadium (4/5) electrolyte PublicDeposited

Descriptions

The advancement of the US energy grid is a necessary task to undertake as renewable energies like wind and solar power become more and more prevalent in our energy sector. However, due to uncontrollable factors such as wind speed and cloud cover, the intermittence of these energy sources continues to degrade their viability. In addition, there is a distinct disparity in the time of peak generation and consumption, resulting in an extremely large ramp in output to the grid, which is very difficult for traditional energy sources to produce. In order to compensate for the variability in output of these types of energy systems, large-scale energy storage (LSES) is a viable method for regulating this energy production. Multiple investigations were done into different applications of LSES, such as rural electrification, and the current and future installation of these devices internationally. A main hindrance to the implementation of LSES is the capital costs of installing and maintaining such large batteries. For these reasons, it is essential to understand the longevity and the physical and chemical mechanisms associated with the different potential technologies. A popular LSES option is the redox flow battery which has two main chemistries: iron chloride and vanadium sulfate. This paper investigates the degradation of carbon electrodes and the kinetics in a vanadium (4/5) electrolyte as the cell is cycled thousands of times. Results show that the number of electroactive sites available on the anodic sweep decreases, and that both the oxidation and reduction forward reactions are extremely likely during initial cycling, then the reactions move towards reversible as the cell is continually cycled.